2. Chan Clan Members Who Emigrated

Our great-grand-father Chan Ah Chek and his wife Cheong had four sons (Ah Kee, Pak Lam, Thin Yang [a.k.a. Kee Ray] and Say San) and a daughter (Sai Mooi). Chan Ah Chek had a younger "brother" called Chan Kau Seng. While Ah Chek had five children, his "brother" Kau Seng had only one son named Chan Ying Kau. Our great-grandfather Chan Ah Chek was a peasant, while our great-grand-uncle Chan Kau Seng was a Taoist priest.

Great-grand-uncle Chan Kau Seng, probably had been to Malaya during the turn of the 20th century. He saw how prosperous Taiping was at that time and persuaded his four young nephews (Ah Kee, Pak Lam, Thin Yang and Say San) and his only son, Chan Ying Kau, to venture there to seek their fortunes.

There was no record to show how many of them or when they made their first trip to Malaya. According to our father Chung Chow, all five of them did traveled to Malaya with Kau Seng, including our grandmother, Wong Sui Cheng. Eventually, Chan Kau Seng and his son Yin Kau, and two of the four brothers in the group, Ah Kee and Thin Yang, and Ah Kee's wife, Wong Sui Cheng, settled down in Malaya. The other two brothers, Pak Lam and Say San, returned to China.

Wong Sui Cheng & Chan Ah Kee

Our grandfather Chan Ah Kee a.k.a. Chan Wong Kee, and grandmother, Wong Sui Cheng, thus became the primogenitors of our Chan/Chung family tree in Malaya. His younger brother, Chan Thin Yang a.k.a. Kee Ray started his own family in Kamunting.

Chan Thin Yang a.k.a. Kee Ray and wives at Siamese temple columbarium Assam Kumbang

Ah Kee's two other brothers, Pak Lam and Say San, returned to their clan village in Qing Yuan and started their families there. The other two who stayed in Malaya were our great-granduncle Chan Kau Seng and his son, Chan Ying Kau who later had a son named Ah Choon. They all lived in the same house as our grandparents in Taiping.

Uncle Lee Yong Chan & Grand-auntie Chan Sai Mooi

About the early 1930s, granduncle Thin Yang returned to China. His mission was to bring back to Malaya the youngest sister, Sai Mooi and her 3-year old son, Lee Yong Chan. At at time, back in the Chan Village in Qing Yuan, grand auntie Sai Mooi was all alone with her young son as her husband had just passed away.

Father Chung Chow had no recollections about grand-aunt Sai Mooi and uncle Yong Chan during those early years. He only recalled that they lived in Kelantan for a while before migrating to Singapore in the early 60s.

 Mother Lee Mooi with grand-aunties- Sook Poh (grand uncle
Ting Yang's wife, Lim Saw Teh) and Sai Mooi (grandfather Chan Ah Kee's sister)
 and another relative Yau Chen

Next: 3. In Search Of A New Life